Abolition

After the entry into force of the Treaty of Lisbon, the pillar structure
ceased to exist, and the legal personality of the European
Community pillar was transferred to the newly consolidated European
Union. This was originally proposed under the European Constitution but that treaty
failed ratification in 2005.

The EEC institutions became the institutions of the EU but the
roles of the institutions between the pillars are different. The
Commission, Parliament and Court of Justice are largely cut out of
activities in the second and third pillars, with the Council
dominating proceedings. This is reflected in the names of the
institutions, the Council is formally the "Council of the
European Union" while the Commission is formally the
"Commission of the European Communities". This allowed the
new areas to be based on intergovernmentalism (unanimous
agreement between governments) rather than majority voting and
independent institutions according to supranational
democracy.

However, after the Treaty of Maastricht, Parliament gained a
much bigger role. Maastricht brought in the codecision procedure, which gave it equal
legislative power with the Council on Community matters. Hence,
with the greater powers of the supranational institutions and the
operation of Qualified
Majority Voting in the Council, the Community pillar could be
described as a far more federal method of decision making.

Spaak report - ARCHIVE OF EUROPEAN INTEGRATION - Intergovernmental Committee on European Integration. The Brussels Report on the General Common Market (abridged, English translation of document commonly called the Spaak Report) [June 1956]